First topic message reminder :

As someone who is not allergic to gluten as such but has a bad reaction to wheat, what alternatives are readily available in Bulgaria? Can I buy oatmeal, rye flour, rice flour? Here in the UK I don't have to bake unless I want to because oatcakes, Ryvita, rice cakes and pumpernickel (rye sourdough breads) are sold quite widely, though I have to choose organic oatcakes to get them without added wheat flour.

On holiday in Turkey I simply took some supplies with me. I got an English speaking Turk to write on a post card for me in Turkish "
I cannot eat wheat, I have brought a replacement"
and took it plus a mini pack of oatcakes with me when we ate out. Obviously I can't take long term supplies as they'd go stale, so what will I find to eat in place of bread?

(Oh how I love bread, but it doesn't love me!)

fruitlover wrote:

We do need sulphur: other foods have it too, like eggs for instance, but it's worth cutting onions right out for a time to see if it helps. Hard when you are used to having it in most things because onion is a flavour enhancer (llike salt) but you can get used to not having it in a little while. Then if the health improves stay off them - if it seems not to, resume slowly and see if there's a reaction?

I have not knowingly eaten onions for many years and my eldest daughter has the same problem. I also had a friend who was hospitalised every time he ate one. He had no idea why he was allergic either.

:Good post:Fruitlover and its worth a try. Why is it that it always seems the things we love most are bad for us like bread and onions!!!

Sometimes it's because we have over-used them. Wheat for one is addictive, the more we eat it the more we crave it. Many people will eat a wheat based breakfast cereal and/or toast, maybe a sandwich for lunch or something in pastry. Snacks may be cakes or biscuits made of wheat flour, and the evening meal may be pasta or pizza. Just because a little of something may be good for you, doesn't mean more is better. In a balanced diet the only thing that should predominate is fresh vegetables, if you want to be healthy. But a lot of us these days put convenience before health without really thinking about it, just by responding to advertising.

I'm not sure what it is in onions that upsets the digestion for some people where it's not inked to mercury poisoning, but a lot of such conditions are actually caused by mineral deficiencies especially of trace elements. Modern farming methods have been leaching the soil of these minerals by not replacing them (for over a century) and have also killed off the micro-organisms that used to enable the plants to take up these nutrients where they were present - a double whammy! The surest way to get these daily essential nutrients back in our diet is by taking a good balanced liquid multi-mineral supplement, unless you are lucky enough to live on volcanic soil that has never been chemically farmed and can drink mineral rich glacial melt water. Then you may live in a state of excellent health to upwards of 100 years or so, as apparently we were designed to do, never ailing till the day you die!

Allergies are usually puzzling and difficult to understand, till you start taking a mineral supplement and they diminish or disappear.